• oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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    5 months ago

    I went into a bit of a guinea pig hole and found this other random guinea pig fact:

    In Switzerland, where owning a single guinea pig is considered harmful to its well-being, keeping a guinea pig without a companion is illegal.[66] There is a service to rent guinea pigs, to temporarily replace a dead cage-mate.[67]

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Honestly, they’re not wrong. Guinea pigs are social animals and live in large families. Same is true with ferrets. You really shouldn’t have just one of either. People treat them like sort of lesser pets to dogs or cats, but they still require their own special and humane care.

      (Yes, I have been reading a lot about Guinea pigs lately for reasons involving giving a teenager reasons to not get them. Or ferrets.)

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        5 months ago

        Get chickens!

        Like guinea pigs, they are dopey, social, and delicious. Quite fun to watch, actually.

        Unlike ferrets, they also provide food for you and your family nearly every day. And they’ll offer amazing free fertilizer for your lawn or garden.

        They are cheap to purchase and care for. And they are pretty self-sufficient and hardy. Cleaning their coop and run is the biggest task (and makes for good compost), as long as they’ve got food, water, and a space safe from predators, they’ll pretty much fend for themselves. And they’ll live a life of luxury compared to their factory-farmed brethren.

        I was against it until my wife (a vegan, of all people) came home with 6 baby chicks one day. And they’ve really been growing on me.

        Edit: Chicken taxChicken tax!